Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Irony Alert, Tea Bag Edition

Tuesday, Metro officials sent a letter ordering businessman Lee Beaman to clear out the homeless camp on property he owns in Antioch. Beaman donated the use of two acres as a temporary space for the tent city.

"We put them on notice, for 30 days, if it takes the owner a little longer than that, we're certainly going to work with all parties concerned," said Bill Penn of Metro Codes.

The original homeless camp in downtown Nashville washed away in the flood.

So just to re-cap, for those of you keeping score: a local Tea Party affiliated group objected to what a private property owner did on his own land, and got Metro Codes to enforce zoning and land use regulations to put a stop to it. How absolutely ironic.

Here’s the best part:

The homeless have to move by July 5. The Metro Homelessness Commission has so far found permanent housing for 8 tent city residents and has issued vouchers to 16 others who are looking for apartments, according to director Clifton Harris.

Wonder if these Tea Baggers would support allocating sufficient tax money for things like housing for the homeless so they don’t have a Tent City in their backyard?